Very carefully.

I finished my Heart yesterday…it took just about an hour to add some dimension to the crane legs, touch up the base, and detail the river.  I could’ve worked on it many more hours; either I wasn’t satisfied that it was perfect or I wasn’t ready to be done.

My mom was with me again – which, as an aside, has been an awesome consequence of this project – and we talked about how difficult it is to let something go that we have put so much time and effort and love into making.  After a while, I’m not sure we were still talking about the Heart.

Last year, the daughter of my best friend graduated from high school.  This year, there is another one.  In three short years, Dave and I will go through that with Luke.  When I was growing up, my mom had a print hanging in our basement that said “The two most important things we can give our children are roots and wings.”  It took me a long time to get what that meant.

Tomorrow, my Heart will be picked up and taken away.  It will be clear-coated and then, probably by the end of the week, it will be installed at a particular location in Lincoln.  It will stay there until October, providing (I hope) enjoyment and inspiration to hundreds of people on a daily basis between now and then.  In October, my Heart, along with all the others in the Nebraska By Heart project, will be auctioned off.   While I am sure I will visit my Heart a few times when it is in Lincoln these next six months, I have no idea if I will ever see it again after the auction.

Is it perfect?  Heavens no.

Am I ready to be done?  Mostly.

Will I miss the stress of the deadline?  NO.

Will I miss my Heart?  Without a doubt.

***A big shout out to Dean Thomson (or, Dad, as I like to call him), Shane Allgood, and Kent Blum.  They bravely risked life and limb — seriously, I would have spilled blood had they broken it somehow — to maneuver my Heart from the ‘studio’ on the second floor of the NCTC house down to the main level.  As it was, there was only a slight bit of touch up required on the very top of the heart.  Whew.***